The Book Report - celebrating the great reads from old favorites to the best hot new writers. I mostly read fantasy, but let's face it--I love to read every genre and I only review what I love!

Friday, December 28, 2012

Indie Book Covers of 2012

One of my favorite parts
of posting book reviews is looking at the cover art, even on ebooks.Some of the finest art out there is on Indie
Books and I am well-known for buying a book for its cover!

One of the most beautifully
illustrated books I have read in a long time is Ravenwild by Dr. Peter J. Plasse. The
gorgeous illustrations are by the incredibly talented Michael Longenecker. Even if the
book were a dud, I would recommend it just for Longenecker's richly detailed
paintings and drawings which are sprinkled throughout the book! However, this
book is a very good read. I spent a snowy day in March reading this tale, and I
am now a confirmed fan.This is
definitely my cover of the year, and the artwork within is awesome.

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Hemlock and the Wizard Tower
(The Maker’s Fire) by B. Throwsnaill. This was the best .99 that I
have spent in a long while and the cover art was also fabulous.

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The
Sum of All MenThis book was first published in 1998, but for some
strange reason I had never read any work byDavid Farland.
That omission, however, has been rectified. He isn’t an indie, but I am now a
drooling fan.

Northman is an excellent novel by an indie
author.J.D. Hughes twists time and history into a paranormal page-turner
that is one of a kind. The cover is simple and powerful, and caught my eye when I first saw it on his blog.

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‘The Time Weaver’ by indie author Thomas A. Knight was an excellent first novel,
and I think it bodes well for his future efforts. He also opted for a simple
cover design, one that is intriguing in its simplicity.

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Jeffrey Getzin’s breathtaking epic fantasy, ‘Prince of Bryanae’ is exceptionally well
covered, in a fabulous fantasy cover that is as fine as we could find on a
Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson novel. I would have given this book my cover of the year vote, if I hadn't fallen in love with Peter Plasse's Ravenwild.

I was also fascinated by the simple yet intriguing covers on LornaT. Suzuki's and Nia Suzuki-White's wonderful Dream Merchant Saga. I felt compelled to pick them up and take a good look when I first saw them and I am so glad I did!

All of these covers prove that even ebooks need good covers on them, because every one of these books was a Kindle or Nook purchase, and as I said before, I usually buy a book for it's cover.

These are by no means all of the fine covers which were featured on the Best In Fantasy this year, but they were the ones with most quickly caught my eye and while I could go on and on, there is only so much you poor readers are going to put up with.

Sigh.

I always loved looking at the pictures as much as reading the books when I was young, and I'm no different now!